Carpenter's Square Block Tutorial - BMQG May BOM

The carpenter's square block is very old and very traditional. But weirdly, when I went looking for patterns or tutorials, I found nothing I could easily use. I ended up drafting Emma's quilt on my own, with graph paper.

For the May BMQG block of the month, I reworked this same block into a smaller-form example, with 2 'woven' colors. This tutorial creates a 9" (finished) block.

One warning: PAY ATTENTION to the direction of the sub-units as you piece! I have made over 20 of these blocks in the past 6 months and still had to rip out several of these seams, after I got distracted!

Cutting directions:

From the white (background) fabric, cut the following pieces:

A - 1.5" x 1.5" (cut 7)

B - 1.5" x 2.5" (cut 4)

C - 1.5" x 3" (cut 2)

D - 1.5" x 3.5" (cut 2)

E - 3" x 3.5" (cut 2)

From the navy fabric, cut the following:

A - 1.5" x 1.5" (cut 2)

B - 1.5" x 2.5" (cut 2) C - 1.5" x 3" (cut 1)

D - 1.5" x 3.5" (cut 3)

F - 1.5" x 5.5" (cut 1)

From the red fabric, cut the following:

A - 1.5" x 1.5" (cut 2)

B - 1.5" x 2.5" (cut 2) C - 1.5" x 3" (cut 1)

D - 1.5" x 3.5" (cut 3)

F - 1.5" x 5.5" (cut 1)

Assembly steps:

1) First, attach one red A and one navy A to opposing sides of a white A:

2) Keeping red A to the left, add a red D to the top and a navy D to the bottom of the unit from Step 1. Set aside.

3) Now attach one white B to either side of a red B. Repeat with a navy B, giving you the following two units:

4) Attach a red D to the navy unit from step 3. Attach a navy D to the red unit from step 3. You'll have the following:

5) Attach the units from step 4 to the top and bottom of the central unit from step 2, as illustrated below. Take care to double-check the direction of the units before you piece! Set aside.

6) Attach one white A to a red B. Do the same for a navy B.

7) Attach a white D to each of the units from step 6. Take care to do this as shown, as the direction does matter:

At this point, we have the following:

8) Attach two white As to opposite sides of a navy A. Do the same for a red A. Then attach a D of the opposite color to each unit. You'll have two units that look like the following image. Set aside.

9) Assemble the two units pictured below by first sandwiching the navy C between a white C and white E. Do the same for the red C:

10) cut the two units from step 9 in half lengthwise, to give you the following:

11) Between each of the pairs from step 10, attach an F of the opposite color. When you're done, you'll have the following:

12) Attach one unit from step 7, step 8, and step 11. Be careful you arrange as shown here:

About Me

I'm a native Clevelander, now living in metro Boston after many years in Detroit. I'm a working mom. Things I love include quilting, swearing, cooking, clippity cloppity English movies, and the Bravo TV network.